Still on Insecurity in Nigeria

THE euphoria that accompanied the 2019 elections died with the completion of the elections and the announcement of results. The country and her inhabitants had hoped that peaceful and normal lives of the citizens would resume in earnest. However, the hopes for tranquility were dashed with the upsurge in the resurgence of crimes in the nation. With the spate of killings all over the country, it is difficult to believe that Government has not abdicated its duty of ensuring the safety of lives and properties of the people.

     THE Hope  observes that criminal activities in the country have  taken new dimensions. Thus cases of ritual killings,  burglary, kidnapping, planting of drugs on innocent migrants, insurgency, and terrorism have escalated and  without a solution in sight. The Boko Haram had increased the tempo of their activities in the North East despite claims by the Federal Government that they have been severely incapacitated. Cries of woes continue in Zamfara, Benue, Kaduna and other parts of Nigeria. In addition, the rich have abandoned the roads and opted for the sky and  trails in their journeys, all due to the increasing  spate of kidnaping on the highways.

      THE  rich are not the only targets in  these attacks  university lecturers, old  and young women, villagers, and travelers have fallen victims of these heinous crimes. In addition to these, cases of police brutality and death by accidental discharges have escalated. Thus, everyone has become prey. Nigerians now sleep with both eyes opened. Given these scenarios, it is safe to decipher that the Federal Government has abdicated the duty of safeguarding lives and properties in this nation.

INSECURITY has grave implications for the growth and development of this nation. When farmers cannot go to their farms, workers cannot go to their offices and political leaders are not safe to travel to their constituencies, then recession looms in the country. Furthermore, investors and tourists who see Nigeria as a difficult environment to live in would divert their foreign direct investments to other peaceful nation.

PRE-LOCATION of industries and investments would contribute in no small way to rising wave of unemployment, reducing Gross Domestic Product  (GDP) and low productivity. Beyond these, local farmers have abandoned their farms for the fear of bandits, thus paving the way for scarcity and increase in the prices of food and raw materials in the days to come.  In the end, when a nation becomes poor, the nationals become poorer and endangered.

UNLIKE nations that are proactive and dedicated to crime control, the environment in which security personnel’s operate in the country does not help in curbing crimes. The national satellite has not been put to effective use in tracking criminals, no operational close circuit television.  CCTV cameras to monitor and control criminals. Streets and houses are not even well laid out and numbered to guide crime fighters. The existence of mutual suspicions amongst Nigerians and towards law enforcement officers make intelligence gathering very difficult and almost impossible. Even, when ongoing criminal activities are reported, quick responses from relevant agencies of government are non-existent due to lack of logistics  and tracking facilities.

THE Hope  is concerned that despite the huge budgetary allocations to the nation’s security institutions, and statutory security votes in the states, there seems to be no evidence that the monies are judiciously used. It is therefore safe to believe that the cankerworm of corruption could have found its way  into the nation’s security framework. Government must therefore be courageous enough and muster the needed political will to uncover the moles in the nation’s security organisations, and investigate the expenditures of the defense ministry and other affiliated security agencies in order to unravel the mystery behind more funds and less results.

THE Hope demands that government at all levels must become more proactive in security enforcement. To this end, infrastructure must be in place to aid policing and the issue of state policing needs to be revisited. There is also the need to boost the confidence of the people in the nation’s security personnel. This would encourage social intelligence and intelligence gathering from the locals against criminals and their nefarious activities. Finally, government should create the necessary environment with crime fighting technologies in place, for policing to thrive.